A Quarter to Tea

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BESTEST TEA TWIN IN THE WORLD, ROSWELL STRANGE!!! IN HONOR OF YOUR BIRTHDAY I AM HAVING CAKE (or at least the batter)!

The dry leaf of this tea seems so festive with sprinkles and coconut slivers and silver sugar balls. It seems like it would be a huge punch of flavor. With that said, in a hot brew, all those festive elements leave the tea pretty scummy and the rooibos takes over as the predominant element. The sugar adds sweetness but that just makes it sweet rooibos. Perhaps this would be better the cold brew route?

There really aren’t enough words to convey how much I love this tea—it’s everything I ever wanted out of a chocolate tea and then some. The combination of quilan oolong, hojicha, and chicory is brilliant—it gives the tea a nice roasted flavor with a tinge of bitterness on the back of the tongue, just like good quality dark chocolate. It really hits all of the right notes for me and then comes the sweet cherry flavor. This tea reminds me of the chocolate covered cherries my grandma bought every Christmas throughout my childhood. I have such fond memories of them and it was always such a treat when she would share a bite with us. Those cordial cherries from Queen Anne were her favorite (and I wouldn’t have blamed her if she had decided to hoard the entire box, those things are delicious.) This is hands down the most realistically flavored chocolate tea I’ve come across. Lauren at A Quarter to Tea really is a talented tea blender, I can’t wait to see what new flavors she dreams up next.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2016/3/8/chocolate-cherry-latte-oolong-a-quarter-to-tea

I had this the other day and forgot to log it (life has been extremely hectic lately.)

It was good, but not great. The spices shine, but the chocolate/hot cocoa flavor was long on me and the oolong base had more power (which is okay – just not for me.)

Another blue tea. Lovely smell, lovely leaves. Blueberry, or currant, and roses are what I smell and taste every time. Fruity overall. And nice.

There were no blueberry and very little flowers left over. It did not turn blue, but the taste was still wonderful. It looked like and tasted like a hot Canadian Ice Wine. I got four steeps so far and counting. All western.

I’m surprised no one else has written about the tea. It is a very good white blend. I’m also surprised this kept so well in my cabinet for over a year. Cheers to a happy new year and to preserving old jewels.

This tea is bizarrely alien. Vanilla and eucalyptus with a berry note rose from the bag. I have to write another paper for work, and I have an emergency. I know that I’m running my stash low. But I need more tea.

I brewed for a little bit and it was the usual white tea color. Near four minutes, the tea turned into a highly translucent aqua green color. The smell was like vanilla and what I’m going call fermenting grain, almost like a beer.

I taste it, and damn. I’ve tasted very few teas like this, and the few I refer to are from Lauren. You can definitely tell this is a white tea with it’s natural creamy and light texture. But the liquor is really sweet. It is practically a candy laced with vanilla and a lighter eucalyptus taste. I ‘m also tasting a bit of grain and something that I want to call blueberry, but isn’t. It’s almost sour. I’m guessing that’s the brandy.

It still smells strong, and I’m brewing it two more times to get more out of it.

I still am sore about Eggnog Poundcake and wanting more of that, but I HIGHLY recommend a try of this just because of how unique it is. I’m really not sure how else to describe this tea, and I don’t know if the berry taste is accurate, but that’s the best way that I can think of describing the other sweet aspect of this. The longer you steep it, the bluer it gets.

Backlog
The smell is lovely. Rose and bergamot all the way, drizzled with slight chocolate smooth like satin. For when I drank it, I got an incredibly smooth rosy Earl Grey. It is malty, but not overly malty as others that I’ve had. I think I have the rose and thank for that and what was left of the chocolate that was hiding into the black tea. But the rose more than makes up for it.

The lack of chocolate in that cup was my only drawback. Otherwise, I do think that this tea was incredibly successful in being a Valentines day tea. I kinda wish I have more because I cannot get enough of its smell.

Obviously, I’m going to try this again for what I have left of the sample. But I do wonder if there are any other good chocolate Earl Grey’s out there? If not, I’m still pretty happy with the taste of this tea.

Glad I sampled it. A good black tea and what needed to keep awake, but a little bit too much on the strong end for me. Cream and sugar would give this one superpowers, though.

Overall, I get MEGA pumpkin spice with a really nice maple flavor blended in the bitter and malty tea. This would probably be a good latte, or a replacement for the Starbucks Pumpkin Spice Latte for all you white girls.

Back log.

With lots of papers, assignments, exercise, and the constant snow fronts, I’ve utterly failed my goal in savoring and budgeting my teas. The following are snippets of me drinking down Quarter to Tea Tea’s.

So, glad I tried this one. Peachy and sweet through and through. I really can taste the raspberry, but it translates as fruity over all with the tea. A sugary texture pops up every now and then. I could also be imagining it.

The Eggnog remains as my favorite White tea from Lauren, but still good.

Sipdown (292)

Spice is such a strange thing because people can handle different levels of it. I know in my family, what my siblings consider spicy, I find is not. So, when I sip on this tea, though there is a chipotle flavor, it is not one that has much spice to it. That leaves me wanting more. Also, the focus is on the chipotle so there is a touch of chocolate flavor but not much and not one that is creamy like a chocolate pudding. All in all, this is not bad but it is also not for me.

I wish I had the good sense to try this next to the Mexican Hot Chocolate as I feel they are similar enough that it would have been interesting to compare their flavor profiles. Oh well.

As I sip on this, the first thing I noticed was it does have a smooth, silky texture that one would expect from pudding. There is also a slight burn at the back of the throat that comes with spice/chipotle but flavorwise, I am not getting any. Also, there is the faintest essence of chocolate but I am not sure if that is because it is actually there or if I just want it to be there given the name. It’s not a particularly bad cuppa, it just leaves me wanting more – more spice, more chocolate, more everything!

Backlong….

One of my 3 samples….the genmai cha was the most prominent note, though as the tea cooled, I did notice more of the carrot cake notes, mostly in the spices and sort of sweet and creamy frosting notes. I can’t recall much, as I used the whole sample in my travel mug. I will likely get more on a future order.

I used the entire sampler bag and did one of my odd Gong Fu/Western combo brews.
At 30 seconds:
Roastiness of hojicka and oolong with a apple aftertaste. Still more tea base, overall made me think of a Dan Cong with a fruity apple note mixed into the heavily roasted, smokey taste.
3 minutes:
I get the apple and the caramel with the base still strong. The cinnamon is starting to sneak up…
And the rest is a flux of the apple and the roasty teas getting a little bit spicier with the cinnamon. I changed the times and relied on smell and color to brew the tea.

It was warming and was more of a winter/fall tea for sure. It felt especially good on my soar throat. I might have to try it again because I did enjoy it.

I do prefer the cherry chocolate latte slightly because I love those things, but the apple was a little bit more natural with the hojicka for me. It is crispy which a baked apple should be. The caramel is the main thing that meanders in and out of the cup.

I would recommend a try of it, and specifically recommend it for those who especially like toasty teas.

I might have to get more of this. I actually tasted more chestnut today and had an incredibly generous portion of about 2 teaspoons in 6 ounces at three minutes. Again, yum. The rest will go to you, Evol Ving Ness.

Urban Tumbler Test and it is really good this time. I used generous portions of this tea. My tumbler is for 15-16 ounces of water, so I would estimate that I put two heaping tablespoons of the tea in it. And I brewed it two times: first being 15 ounces, the latter closer to 9 or 10. The last one I might make into a 4 or 5 since I can taste the flavor leftover strongly at the bottom.

After I spent a huge portion of leaves for liquid motivation going to work, I get the chestnut more after 3 minutes to five. Then it vanishes into the concurrent caramel taste with a strong creaminess coming in. A little bit buttery, but more caramelized and candy like. After a while, it essentially tastes like butterscotch. No fancy note talking, jut straight up butterscotch. The leaves remained in the water the entire time. The same with the second steep at 9-10 ounces, 180-190 degrees.

I really, really liked this tea and could see myself getting more of it. The only thing I think it needs is more chestnut like Sil. I also continue to think this would not do badly for a chocolate tea. The tea remained light overall, but I’m personally thankful for that since I love lighter black teas. Some people actually found this tea bitter which I can see with less water. I did use 15 ounces which is a lot. It might have been bitter for me if I had more leaves too. How much water and leaves you want to use is more up to you, the reader and maybe drinker. I can accurately claim, however, that this tea is for butterscotch lovers and people who drink lighter teas.

Also, I was actually pretty close to giving this a 90. I’ve just been spoiled by Lauren’s other awesome teas. I hope she makes more like this one in the future.

Again, lighter than I expected. Three minutes not bad, and five minutes still a little bit light. The color is a really light caramel color, and the taste is like caramel in water. I get some of the chestnut and creaminess talked about. I definitely taste the black tea and it is smooth. More lightness.

Looks like I have to up leafage. Pretty nice, but it could use more body. I think that this would make a great chocolate black tea.

I really shouldn’t go through my tea so quickly, but I’m trying to wake up and am still lethargic. More tea it is.

I’ve had this in my cabinet for over a year….and it is so good with the sunshine. The green woody body is fresh, and the cherry and vanilla sweeten it out nicely. I am fairly happy before I sip out.

I did not expect this tea to be as light as it was. It’s one of those Darjeelings that I would put on the more oolong side. It is definitely muscatel on its own, but it also has a really nice green woody edge. Cherry and the Darjeeling take over for the most part, but the spices really adds a light kick and the vanilla is a lighter but noticeable accent.

As for the bag, its smell is awesome: dominant, sweet cherry blended with mulling spices and a following vanilla. I can see why this was a Christmas Seasonal-the smell does make me think of winter and in some ways fall. The tea didn’t taste nearly as powerful as the smell, and I think that’s a good thing. I could see myself drinking this often because it is a lighter tea, but I’m not sure I would drink it constantly. Again, I think this is a smarter seasonal tea.

I’d recommend it to cherry lovers, but I’m not sure what would be disliked about it because I personally really like it. I think it might be too weak for some or a little bit boring, so it’s really for a more mellow tea drinker. It was a little weak even for me at three minutes, making me up it to five. I might drink it midday because it’s mellow.

Now, this makes me a little bit curious about the Lemon Blueberry Muffin version of this tea. I wonder how Lauren would get the pastry taste. I could totally seeing the lemon popping out with the base, and then the blueberry adding some sweet-tartness. I’ll just have to see myself or see how others write about it.

As my mouth is still full of peanut butter (I have a problem, k?) the nut flavour of this is kind of lost on me… but the banana is spot on.

Yum.

Thanks so much for sharing, Dexter! I’ll do another steep later and see how it is. But this tea + peanut butter = delicious.

Edit: Steep 2 is good as well. 6 minutes. Banana-y, although not super banana-y. Walnut skin nutty flavour. I think I preferred the Cherry Latte Oolong (??) but this is also tasty.

2.5 tsp in 16 oz for 4 min plus some milk.

Finished off my sample and I’m not happy about it. I’ve spent so I much on tea though. Dang it. I really liked this one…but I think that the Ice brandy might cheer me up when I get to it. Curse my expensive tastes!

Okay, I might need more of this. It is one of the best white blends that I’ve ever tried. It is creamy, light, sweet, but warming with a really nice hint of cinnamon at the end. I’ve actually been looking for a white tea like this and holy crap. This would be my ideal dessert. Steep one and two are awesome…I really don’t want it to fade in steep three…

Enough overpraising. This doesn’t taste exactly like Eggnog, but it is pretty similar in the type of creamy and slightly spiced profile. The pound cake element is a little bit stronger since the white tea does have an odd buttered texture. It still feels light on the tongue, but thick enough to coat it with a thin gloss. It’s like the lingering after taste of a pound cake, really.

For who it might be for, I would definitely recommend it to those looking for a creamier, or sweeter light tea. Some might think it’s way too light or weak, while others might think it’s too vanilla-y. There’s also a bit of a sugariness that would be up for debate on whether or not it’s more natural tasting or more artificial. I brewed it lighter, so it was more natural for me.

It’s one of my favorites that Lauren has made. In fact, I would recommend her lighter, creamier teas because she really kicks butt with them.

I’ve been twitching for the next order to arrive. It has, and the packaging is nice and airtight. Thank you Lauren!

Now, this tea. It is very nice and definitely an Earl Grey. It’s also pretty fruity. The Bergamot is powerful….very powerful…too powerful. I had to seal it in my drawer for the odious forces seeping out of the bag were creeping into its brothers and sisters. There it shall lay, dormant until I release it again for my consumption.

I really want Penny Dreadful to come out soon….

Anyway, back to the tea. Bergamot and malt lead on. Maple follows in the rooibos and in the black tea in a very sweet way. The Vanilla comes in last, and nicely does so. I really like this flavor combo and this is a bergamot lovers tea. It is a little bit astringent and it certainly is more of an English Tea (I know-I know-Tea is really from China, Taiwan, India, Sri Lanka, and a few other places). Most of Lauren’s teas are the kind that you want to add cream and sugar too, and this one needs to be strong in order to hold up to the sweeteners. The rooibos actually makes this a little woodsier and more citric. Rooibos Earl Greys are usually like orange extract anyway. That’s my only real deterrent from the rooibos though. Luckily at a teaspoon, it holds up nicely and it is sweet and smooth enough at least for me to drink straight.

In the end, my only criticism is that it’s a bit on the stronger side for me. Otherwise, I love the flavor.

This is one of my favorite blends that I’ve tried from A Quarter to Tea! Their maple flavoring is perfect, natural and not too sweet. Mixed with the creaminess of the vanilla, it makes for a decadent bedtime treat. And bonus: no unpleasant rooibos aftertaste! I would definitely consider re-ordering this one.